What if modern civilization as you knew it just disappeared? And I'm not talking about any abstract rhetorical question about whether or not civilization is civilized or anything like that, just the basic premise. What if you were just picked up from where you were right now at this very moment and thrown back more than a thousand years ago to the middle ages. What would you do?

I bring it up because a while ago I heard this wonderful supposition about people during the middle ages and their perspective on the ancient roman world. In it, the professor details the years following the Roman Empire where the advances in technology were essentially lost in one way or another, leaving only these mythically sized ruins and marble specters. One can imagine just how bizarre it would be to live in the shadows of ancient monoliths and wonder where they came from, who built them, and how they were able to do it. People were not so sure how to effectively dig and line wells, let alone build massive aqueduct systems which brought water from dozens of miles away up and down mountains.

But that scenario does not seem so implausible, even today. In fact, I think if we were in that type of situation, we would in some respects be a lot worse off than the men and women of the middle ages. We know what technology is capable of, yet we know nothing beyond the fundamental aspects of what that technology does let alone how to reproduce it. Amusingly, there was apparently so much of a loss of technological know-how that it was very difficult to redevelop the wheel and carriage system developed in antiquity. Seriously. Sounds ridiculous, but how many of us can design a wheel and carriage system, with working axels, drums, lubrication, and even the essential calculation of mechanical advantage right off the bat?



So consider this first hypothetical. Suppose you are who you are now, with all the modern conveniences and so on at your disposal (or potentially at your disposal). Now imagine you were picked up from exactly where you are sitting at your computer and transported back to the time of the dark ages. The Roman Empire has been far gone for a good few hundred years and all the fancy bits of technology they had developed have been lost along with it. Also, for arguments sake, also keep in mind that any evidence of the technology the Romans developed has disappeared too, the only thing that even remotely remains which knows what has transpired in history is in your very own head. What would you be able to do?

Now consider this second hypothetical. Suppose that you had time to prepare before you were removed from this era and transported back to the Middle Ages, and could bring with you a single sheet of paper. What would you put on it? Words of wisdom? Basic chemical formulas? Various schematics? Maps?